Industry Pro Audio Founder Bill Putnam Type of business Privately held company | Owner Bill Putnam | |
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Products Audio Signal Processing Hardware and Digital Signal Processing Software Headquarters Scotts Valley, California, United States Founded Evanston, Illinois, United States Profiles | ||
Universal Audio is a designer and manufacturer of audio signal processing hardware and DSP software founded in 1958 by Bill Putnam. The current incarnation of the company was re-established in 1999 by brothers Jim Putnam and Bill Putnam, Jr. Universal Audio merged with Kind of Loud Technologies to achieve two goals: "reproduce classic analog recording equipment designed by their father and his colleagues" and "research and design new recording tools in the spirit of vintage analog technology."
Today, Universal Audio continues in the tradition established by Bill Putnam Sr., replicating modern versions of the classic UREI and Teletronix designs. Universal Audio also manufactures DSP cards and audio plugins for music production under the UAD-2 platform. They've garnered several TEC Award nominations and a FutureMusic Platinum award for their achievements with Putnam's son Bill, Jr. serving as CEO.